How did this happen? Four days and they couldn’t find this woman, who all the time was right within the building?

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – An Alzheimer’s patient who disappeared for four days was found in a storage room of the nursing home where she lived, but the woman later died at a hospital.

Mary Cole, 66, had disappeared Monday from Liberty Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, authorities said. She was found Friday under a table in a storage room at the center, said her daughter, Tammy Terry.

At that point, she was dehydrated but had a heart beat and pulse, Terry said. But she died soon after she arrived at Presbyterian Hospital. An autopsy will be performed.

A police investigation will focus on why the storage room wasn’t locked and why Cole wasn’t found after six searches, said Charlotte-Mecklenburg police spokesman Keith Bridges.

Terry was perplexed as well.

“The people in that nursing home were wonderful to us. They sat up all night with us. They searched from 7 a.m. to nightfall with us. They cried with us,” Terry said. “But I don’t understand why she wasn’t found.

“They told us they’d searched every nook and cranny of that place.”

In a statement faxed to media, Liberty administrator John Gryglewicz expressed the center’s sadness at “this loss,” and sympathy to Cole’s family.

This is just plain GROSS. I hope those who had any part of this are punished to the full extent of the law.

BEDFORD, Ind. - A lawsuit filed by the daughters of a 74-year-old man who froze to death after he wandered from a nursing home claims workers bathed his body, changed his clothes and placed him in his bed after finding him dead.

The lawsuit filed in Lawrence Circuit Court against Hospitality House names its owner, Bloomington Hospital, and unidentified people it claims contributed to Orland Jean’s January 2004 death.

A dietary worker found Jean outside the nursing home, about 20 feet from a courtyard door and summoned other workers who took him back inside, according to the lawsuit. Jean suffered from dementia, was missing part of his right leg and was confined to a wheelchair.

“According to the dietary worker, everyone who viewed Mr. Jean knew that he was dead. However, employees of Hospitality House removed his wet clothes, bathed the dead body and put a clean gown on the dead body, and placed the body in Mr. Jean’s bed,” the lawsuit states.

A report by Lawrence County Coroner John Sherrill ruled Jean’s death due to environmental hypothermia.

“I feel the facility went to great lengths to hide the facts, to deceive a doctor, to tamper with the crime scene and evidence by throwing out the clothes,” Sherrill’s report stated. “This was an absolute cover up of this death to the point we don’t know the truth of how Mr. Jean got out of the facility or how long he was out of the facility.”

The lawsuit alleges Jean left the building through an unlocked door in the home’s Alzheimer’s unit and was outside in “subfreezing temperatures” in rain, freezing rain and snow.

The State Department of Health fined Hospital House $13,500 after an investigation of Jean’s death.

Attorney James Whitlatch, who represents Bloomington Hospital, said Saturday he cannot comment on the lawsuit’s claims against Hospitality House, which he said is a nonprofit, long-term care center.

“Obviously the Hospitality House was concerned about that incident and certainly believes the facts are different from what’s in the plaintiff’s complaint. It’s unfortunate that the suit was filed,” he said.

Eric Koch, the attorney for Jean’s daughters, Pamela Cheek of Plainfield and Dana Chancellor of Dothan, Ala., said the lawsuit could take two years or more to go to trial.

Update about the upstate NY nursing home that is being closed.

(January 20, 2006) — The New York state Health Department said Thursday that it is in discussions with the owner of Jennifer Matthew Nursing and Rehabilitation Center about closing the facility.

“We’re in active discussions with the owner on the closure,” said Health Department spokesman Joe DiMura, about the Portland Avenue nursing home that is being investigated by the state Attorney General’s Office on allegations of abuse and neglect. “Our priority has always been and continues to be the health and safety of the residents. We’re working to come to a resolution on the future of the home soon.”

However, Rochester resident Arlene Walters, whose mother is at Jennifer Matthew, said staff members told her when she visited the nursing home Thursday that the facility is closing. Walters said residents were also told about the closure Thursday, and that a meeting was planned for today to talk to relatives of residents.

“I’m very upset about it. This has been a wonderful place,” said Walters, whose mother, Gertrude Domalski, 91, has lived at Jennifer Matthew for two years. “She’s been treated very well. And now everyone is going to be separated.”

David Lenefsky of Manhattan, the lawyer for Jennifer Matthew’s primary owner and operator, Anthony Salerno, couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday. Salerno is based in Ulster County. Rochester lawyer Thomas G. Smith, who also represents Jennifer Matthew, said he couldn’t comment.

Jennifer Matthew residents must be placed in other long-term care facilities before the nursing home shuts its doors. The state Health Department requires that a nursing home operator must provide at least 90 days for that process to be completed. Currently, there are about 80 residents in the 120-bed for-profit facility and 129 workers, according to an earlier statement released by nursing home management.

The state Attorney General’s Office filed a civil suit Jan. 5 asking a judge to shut down Jennifer Matthew in the wake of an attorney general’s investigation that involved a hidden camera being placed in a patient’s room to monitor care. Court papers say a 70-year-old man, who suffers from dementia, was not turned regularly, checked for incontinence or given adequate food or hydration while the camera was in place from April to June 2005.

Fourteen Jennifer Matthew nurse’s aides and nurses have been arrested on charges of willful violation of health law and falsifying records, with nine of those workers pleading guilty to lesser charges.

Those pleading guilty have told the Attorney General’s Office other stories about residents lying in their own waste as staffers took naps or watched television, or call bells were purposely placed out of reach so residents could not ask staffers for help, according to the attorney general’s civil lawsuit.

Ex-worker pleads guilty

The ninth former worker pleaded guilty in Rochester City Court on Thursday. Sentencing, which could be up to a year in jail, will take place in February and March for those who have pleaded guilty. The other five workers’ cases have gone to a Monroe County grand jury to be considered for trial.

In an earlier statement, Jennifer Matthew management said the neglect was the result of the actions of a select group of staff members and was not indicative of the kind of care given in the whole facility.

“I really hope that the attorney general will close that place down for the sake of those poor residents who are in there now so they can get to a better place,” said Webster resident Irene Barney, 82, who stayed at Jennifer Matthew for two months last year to rehabilitate after hip surgery.

This is horrible. How can any nurse discharge a resident with feet in the condition described here? Without ever notifying a doctor or family? Didn’t they do a discharge assessment and summary?

Madison County prosecutors want to take a pretrial deposition of an 82-year-old man named as the victim in a case of neglect at a Collinsville nursing home because his health might deteriorate.

Prosecutors filed a motion last week seeking permission to take a deposition of Albert Chambers, who authorities say had to have a leg amputated because he did not receive proper care and attention at Collinsville Care Center.

Normally, testimony for a criminal case in Illinois has to be given at a trial, in a courtroom. But a state law that went into effect in 2004 allows victims in cases of elder abuse to give testimony through a deposition without having to appear in court. The deposition can then be read later to a jury, or, if it’s videotaped, shown to a jury.

A motion filed by prosecutors Calvin B. Fuller and Alli Tolliver states: “It is a realistic possibility that Albert Chambers’ health may quickly deteriorate.” Prosecutors did not elaborate.

Chambers would be subject to cross-examination by defense attorneys during the deposition.

Circuit Judge Charles Romani Jr. has not yet set a date for a hearing on the prosecutors’ motion.

Three nurses — Linda Dellamano, 51, of Collinsville; Patricia Revelle, 35, of Glen Carbon; and Rose Revelle, 69, of Glen Carbon — were charged in December with criminal neglect of Chambers.

According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, the nursing home failed to notify the patient’s family and doctor of his complaints of foot and heel pain during his two-week stay at the home. When he was discharged and brought home on Jan. 10, 2005, the sock was removed from his left foot, revealing toes that were bloody and black.

Chambers was taken to a hospital, where his left leg was amputated above the knee seven days later.

The Department of Public Health fined the 115-bed nursing home $10,000. The nursing home has had no other major violations of state regulations in the past three years, according to department records.

The nurses are free on $500 bail. They could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Messages left for the administrator of the nursing home were not immediately returned. Prosecutors in December said Dellamano no longer works at the nursing home. It could not be determined Tuesday whether the Revelles still work there.

Michigan’s AG doesn’t fool around when it comes to issues of abuse and neglect. The latest:

LANSING, Mich., Jan. 25 /PRNewswire/ — Attorney General Mike Cox announced today that a Detroit nursing home, its medical director/co-owner, and the director of nursing were bound over as charged and will go on trial regarding the death of a nursing home resident and the abuse of vulnerable adult residents.

“This tragic incident never should have happened,” said Cox. “Facilities and their employees have a fundamental obligation to protect the residents that they care for. I will not sit idly by and watch this abuse go unpunished.”

Parkridge Associates, formerly d/b/a Northland Nursing Center; Patrick Charles, M.D., 55, Parkridge Associates’ Medical Director/co-owner; and Kathryn Gillis, R.N., 56, Director of Nursing; each have been charged with one felony count of Involuntary Manslaughter, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and/or a $7,500 fine, and four felony counts of Vulnerable Adult Abuse-2nd degree, which carries four years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine. Defendants were bound over by Judge Marylin E. Atkins in Detroit’s 36th Judicial District Court on January 24, 2006. Judge Atkins found that there is sufficient evidence for this matter to proceed to trial in Circuit Court.

Charges of Involuntary Manslaughter against the Detroit nursing home, its medical director/co-owner, and director of nursing were originally filed on April 21, 2003, following an investigation into the heat-related death of a 78-year-old tube-fed female resident. On February 9, 2005, four additional charges of Vulnerable Adult Abuse-2nd Degree were filed against each Defendant.

Cox alleges in the complaints that in June 2001 Defendants failed to ensure the residents’ safety in hazardous temperature levels, failed to adequately monitor and assess the condition of residents, failed to initiate evacuation procedures, and allowed internal body temperatures of some residents to reach as high as 107 degrees.

Facilities statewide, including Parkridge Associates, formerly d/b/a Northland Nursing Center, received an alert entitled “Recommendations To Health Facilities For Handling Heat And Humidity In Summer Months,” which cautioned about heat-related medical emergencies and necessary steps to prevent deaths, especially among the elderly.

Cox further alleges that the facility’s air conditioning system was not functioning, the facility’s windows did not open, and there was a lack of fans for residents to use when temperatures in Detroit reached 87 degrees F on June 13, 89 degrees F on June 14, and 90 degrees F on June 15, 2001. On June 14, 2001, several of the nursing home’s seriously ill residents identified as being “at risk for dehydration” began experiencing life-threatening problems as a result of the high temperatures. As medical director and treating physician, Dr. Charles was responsible for the proper care and treatment of the patients. One resident was found to have a temperature of 107 degrees F and Dr. Charles prescribed Tylenol® and ordered the resident to be transferred to the hospital. Before E.M.S. arrived, the victim was found unconscious and unresponsive with no vital signs. The medical examiner concluded that the death was caused by prolonged exposure to excessive heat. As Director of Nursing, Karen Gillis was also responsible for the proper care and assessment of the patients. Three other vulnerable patients were transferred to the hospital for serious heat-related conditions.

A criminal charge is an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

Nursing home residents- especially those with dementia, often walk out the front doors of the facility. They follow visitors who are leaving or staff who are walking through their units. Even homes with secure doors can see this happen. It’s a tragedy when the resident gets outside (in the very cold) and passes away.

(CBS4) MEDFORD A Medford nursing home is under investigation after the death of a patient. The question is, why was he able to walk right out of the facility unnoticed?

Capt. Scott Graham says when emergency crews pulled into Medford’s Courtyard Nursing Home, 78-year-old John Medeiros was on the ground out in the back of the building without a pulse. The elderly Malden man apparently walked right out the front door of the building last Monday afternoon.

“We arrived on scene, nursing home staff directed us to the rear of the building, when we arrived, staff and a Medford police officer were doing CPR,” said Capt. Graham.

A spokesperson for the nursing home tells CBS4 they encourage patients to get up and walk around, and they can actually leave as long as they sign out. That did not happen in this case, and no one knew he was missing until it was too late.”

John Medeiros died hours later at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn says in the wake of Mr. Medeiro’s death, Courtyard has put new procedures in place to prevent anything like this from happening again. “It always seems to be a nice place but when a situation like this comes up, you have to check things — no matter how well everything has been in the past — to make sure more safeguards are in place.”

John Medeiros was supposed to be heading home after short term rehab. Now the State Department of Public Health and investigators are trying to figure out if this is a case of elder abuse or neglect.

Often these things happen during change of shift times. Staff who are just coming in to work need to hear nursing report, and this is the time of day when confused residents start wandering a lot (Sundowners).

Another really good article about nursing homes that are embracing culture change.

Now, it’s all about choice for residents at Skyline Ridge Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which is the flagship for a pilot program and the first instituted nationwide by the center’s corporate owner.
The sweeping cultural change means residents are no longer treated as a group. Each individual now can choose when to get up each morning, when to go to bed each night, how many of the five daily meals to eat and exactly what to enjoy during those meals. Residents can also participate in a wider variety of options in the activities program.

Skyline Ridge is owned and operated by Five Star Quality Care, Inc., which is based in Newton, Mass., and has a total of 155 senior living facilities in 30 states. The other 154 facilities are looking at the success of the Skyline Ridge program in Cañon City before considering the implementation of a similar plan.

“The program was really designed with our residents in mind,” said Skyline Ridge Administrator Larry Lavelle. “I’m so proud to be the pilot facility for Five Star because this allows us to offer the very best in service to our residents that much more quickly.”

Lavelle said the structure of each day and the number of choices now available to residents are the most sweeping changes he has seen in his 16 years at the helm of Skyline Ridge.

“We are blessed with a long-term staff that has a lot of experience and expertise which lent itself to making this a good place to pilot the program,” Lavelle said.

Since the program was implemented Nov. 1, positive changes have been evident in residents’ health and attitudes, Director of Nursing Julie Lauer said.

“It’s been great for them,” Lauer said. “It’s all about their choices and their schedules. The residents are more alert. They sleep better now because they’re on their own schedules.”

As part of the culture change, hallways and areas inside the center have been renamed to reflect a small community. Addresses include Sunny Lane, Main Street, Pine Ridge, Skyline Square and Memory Lane. And the Skyview Café, formerly the dining room, is the heart of many of the changes.

Five meals a day are now served at Skyline Ridge, including continental breakfast, a full brunch, siesta snack, dinner and nightcap. Brunch and dinner are served in Skyview Café, while the other meals are served room-to-room from dining carts.

Like any restaurant, the café now offers a wide variety of menu items at each meal, including the “always-available” items of peanut butter and jelly sandwich with chips, chef salad with choice of dressing, deli sandwich made to order or the popular cottage cheese and fruit plate.

The varied selection is thanks to Joyce Long, dietary manager, who now writes her own menus instead of conforming to corporate-wide choices.

“This is so much better than the old style,” Long said. “It’s much more open, they have so many choices. And we continue to tweak the menu with feedback from our residents.”

Those residents seem to love the changes. Resident Bob DeMars, 50, said even the food reminds him of home.

“I think the food is very good,” DeMars said. “I really like the choices now.”

Mary J. Trembly, 85, said she particularly enjoys having the food delivered to her room by staff members.

“It’s really nice to have so many choices,” Trembly said. “It’s nice to have the choice to sleep in because I like to play games at night — Yahtzee, dominos and bingo.”

The activities department also is expanding with the culture change, something DeMars also appreciates.

“I really like the activities here and the way we can do our own thing,” DeMars said. “This is my home away from home and it’s so nice now. We even get better care. They (staff) spend more time with us now because we’re not on such a strict schedule.”

Lauer agreed from a nursing standpoint and said the entire center is more relaxed.

“It’s not as regimented now,” Lauer said. “The whole atmosphere is more like home.”

Skyline Ridge will continue the process of culture change — the revolution of long-term care that is sweeping the nation. In Colorado, Long said the transformation began in metropolitan areas, including Denver, and moved into mid-size cities like Colorado Springs and Pueblo before finding smaller communities like Cañon City.

“We spent a good year laying in the groundwork,” Long said. “We formed a culture change committee with 15 employees and gathered input from all of our residents. … Baby boomers are aging. They want what they want, when they want it. Having this much choice is great for everyone.”

These numbers seem very low to me. 16 cases? I’ve seen that many in two nursing homes alone. But the article states that this is just the first reports coming in. I don’t wish for the number to be higher, but it’s surprises me.

Jan. 18–Ohio released on Tuesday its first available data on the number of cases of one type of potentially deadly infection at hospitals and nursing homes.

But state officials concede it’s too soon to say what these numbers mean, or whether they are higher or lower than what’s expected.

Summit County hospitals and nursing homes whose data were available reported 16 new and six recurrent cases of Clostridium difficile (C. diff) infections over the first week of this year — the first reporting period.

The data for all hospitals or nursing homes were not yet available.

The available data showed three cases at Akron General Medical Center, five at the three hospitals of the Summa Health System, three at Edwin Shaw Rehab Center and one at Select Specialty Hospital, an independent business located in Akron General.

Nursing homes in Summit County reported 10 cases.

Kristopher Weiss, an Ohio Department of Health spokesman, said it is not yet known the percentage of the approximately 1,150 facilities from which the state has received data so far.

On Jan. 1, the Ohio Department of Health began requiring hospitals and nursing homes to report their numbers of initial and recurrent cases of C. diff for six months.

“We need to examine how widespread this bacterium is in hospitals and long-term care facilities,” said agency director J. Nick Baird. “While C. diff thankfully does not spread easily from person to person, a new, aggressive strain of C. diff is of growing concern to the public health, hospital and long-term care communities.”

C. diff is a bacteria that normally resides harmlessly along with protective bacteria in the intestines. But when antibiotics kill protective bacteria, C. diff can cause infection, resulting in symptoms like diarrhea and fatigue. The new data are meant to establish a baseline for expected numbers of C. diff cases.

Read the rest of this article—>

The flu this year isn’t responding to the drugs used for treatment.

Flu bug resistant, Feds say *** Usual drugs won’t cure big ‘06 strain

ATLANTA The government, for the first time, is urging doctors not to prescribe two antiviral drugs commonly used to fight influenza because of concerns about drug resistance, officials announced Saturday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the recommendation covers the drugs rimantadine and amantadine for the 2006 flu season.

Results of recent lab tests on influenza samples showed that the predominant strain this season the H3N2 influenza strain was resistant to the drugs, the agency said.

Clinicians should not use rimantadine and amantadine … because the drugs will not be effective, said CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding. The two drugs have been used for years to combat type-A influenza.

Gerberding said the lab data, which CDC scientists had been analyzing since Friday, surprised health officials and the health agency rushed to get the word out Saturday.

I dont think we were expecting it to be so dramatic so quickly this year, Gerberding said. We just didnt feel it was responsible to wait three more days during a holiday weekend to let clinicians know.

The CDC tested 120 influenza A virus samples from the H3N2 strain and found that 91 percent, or 109, were resistant to the two drugs. Two years ago, less than 2 percent of the samples were resistant. Last year, 11 percent were, the CDC said.

Gerberding said the agency was not sure how the resistance occurred, saying it may have been the result of a mutation in the H3N2 flu strain or could have come from overuse of the drugs abroad, such as in countries that permit them drugs to be purchased without a prescription.

One flu expert, Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, said the development was disconcerting as flu now has joined the ranks of other diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV, that recently have acquired the ability to resist front-line medications.

But Schaffner said doctors have other options to fight influenza.

One is the antiviral Tamiflu, also known as oseltamivir. The CDC said that all H3 and H1 influenza viruses the agency has tested so far are susceptible to the other commonly used antivirals, including Tamiflu and zanamivir, also called Relenza.

Tamiflu is now readily available everywhere in most places, it is the primary antiviral being used against flu, Schaffner said. But were always a bit frustrated when one of the therapeutic agents is foreclosed. It makes every infectious disease doctor worry a little bit.

Doctors also recommend an annual flu shot to help prevent getting influenza in the first place.

The CDC said it planned to alert doctors throughout the country via its emergency Health Alert Network and through a special edition of its weekly journal, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Each year, the flu kills about 36,000 people, and some 200,000 are hospitalized because of it in the United States, the CDC said. As of Dec. 31, the latest CDC data available, flu activity was only considered widespread in seven U.S. states, mainly in the Southwest and West: Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California.

FYI…

Jan. 14–Plans are in motion to build a veterans nursing home in Tucson and a similar facility in Yuma may not be far behind.

“This isn’t the end all. We need to look around the state and see where we need to move forward,” Patrick Chorpenning, director of Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, said. “I think there is probably a need for one in Yuma.”

But the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs selects the sites for new facilities based on demand and right now, the need is in Tucson.

“Once we get this one up and moving we may look at other places,” Chorpenning said.

State Sen. Jim Waring, R-Phoenix, introduced a bill authorizing $10.05 million in state funding to help construct a 180-bed $28.7 million veterans nursing home in Tucson. It would be located on seven acres next to the federal VA hospital and would include a unit specifically for Alzheimer’s disease patients.

The state’s first and only nursing home was built in Phoenix in 1995. It has 200 beds.

The Tucson nursing home would serve veterans in Cochise, Graham, Greenlee, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz and Yuma counties.

More than 66,000 veterans who live in these counties are at least 65 years old, according to the Governor’s Veterans Task Force.

Nearly 600,000 veterans live in Arizona. It’s estimated that 15,000 or 8 percent of Yuma County residents are veterans. In Pima County, it’s 16 percent.

State Rep. Russ Jones, an Army veteran who is on the military affairs committee, said it may be time to look at Yuma’s growing population of veterans.

“I wonder if it is significant enough to justify a second facility (hospital or nursing home). It would have to be analyzed,” Jones said.

Dale Hiller, commander of American Legion Post No. 19, said a second nursing home in Tucson is a great idea.

“It’s been needed for a long time,” he said. “I know the one in Phoenix is pretty crowded.”

Jones said this expansion is overdue.

“Unfortunately, for Yuma veterans, Tucson is farther than Phoenix,” Jones said.

Sen. Robert Cannell, D-Yuma, and Rep. Amanda Aguirre, D-Yuma, could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.

Mike Arnold, commander of Veterans of Foreign Wars No. 1763, said Tucson is too far for many people to travel or would want to move to. But it’s unlikely that Yuma would get its own veterans home.

“It’s a constant battle to get anything,” Arnold said.

Jack “Semi” McConnell, member of the Rough Riders, a motorcycle club made up of veterans who help aging veterans, said it’s important veterans have their own nursing home.

“Then they can be there in a home with people who have something in common with them,” he said. “It’s another way for our country to help our veterans, especially the World War II veterans.”

Chorpenning said it is hard to know exactly when the Tucson nursing home would open. First, the state funds need to be approved. Then it can move forward in the federal process.

A year from now they will find out if they received the federal funding. Then it will be another to design the project and construction would start a year after that, Chorpenning said.

The state funding bill made it through the committee meeting on Thursday without any opposition, Chorpenning said.

“It’s the highest priority for this office. It’s the highest priority for the veterans of this state,” he said.